With continued globalization the need for personal and business interaction between people in real time over long distances is steadily increasing. Voice communication is still the primary mode for achieving the interaction. However, increasingly the voice communication is being supplemented by chat sessions including text, audio and video. Lately, there has also been an increasing usage of video conferencing for an improved quality of interaction using software applications like Skype™ to high end dedicated conferencing setups like in tele-presence.
Despite such advances, the interactions between people in real time are primarily limited to increased effectiveness in communication between people located at different places. Such interactions have not been able to achieve a shared experience people get in real time when they are located at the same place. In recent years, new products and services, such as Hangout™ from Google™ allow sharing of audio, video, and image content with video conferencing to enable a collaboration experience. However, such products and/or services require users to subscribe to a centralized service.
Other features of the present embodiments will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description that follows.